Wildcat surf team rips it up
by Misty Volaski

Who cares if Ojai's technically land-locked?
For years, the surfer dudes and surfer chicks of our community have been pining for an interscholastic surfing team - and now, thanks to Maura Foy, the school's aquatics director, Villanova is competing with area schools in five surfing competitions this year.
It all started, Foy said, when a student, Kaley Swift, approached her with the idea of a surf team last year.
"She loves surfing, and she's good at it. So I took it to the headmaster (Tony Sabatino) and he was receptive to the idea."
From there, Foy researched the possibilities of an interscholastic squad. However, it wasn't feasible to be driving the students down to San Diego for every meet, she said, where the competitions were usually held.
"Then I heard they were developing a section in this area," she added. "If and when they developed a new section, we wanted to join."
The Interscholastic Surfing Federation, in existence since the late '80s, had a meeting earlier this year to discuss whether a new section should be added. It was decided that Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Santa Barbara and Dos Pueblos would form a new league, and Foy called a meeting at Villanova to see how the kids would respond to the idea of a surfing team.
"They were really interested. We didn't have a lot of time before the season started, so we went with the kids with some experience and ended up with 11 kids on the team," Foy explained. There were several dozen kids at the meeting, some of whom had never even swam in the ocean, Foy added.
"There was a lot of paperwork, because we were going to be in the ocean," she said, but the kids never let down their enthusiasm.
To date, the team has surfed in three meets and has two more scheduled for Jan. 12 at Topanga and Jan. 25 at UCSB.
In each meet, anyone who gets in the water with a board gets three points. Then, based on their performance, the surfers will receive more points. All points in this round are team-only points. About 50 percent of the competitors go on to the second round, which is individual. Trophies are given out to the best surfers in each category.
Swift recently won a first-place trophy in her division, her first ever, at Ventura Beach at California Street.
The team includes: Sebastian Christlieb, Zac Montgomery, Ryan Kudla, Andy Malkin, Joe Stein, Nick Soille, Rachel Balderas, Harry Evans, Jaclyn Orgel, Kaley Swift (captain), and Kyle Frawley; they are coached by Foy.
"It's a great group of kids. The team's real supportive, they're real nice," said team member Zac Montgomery. "Nobody ever puts anyone down or anything like that. And, yeah, I'm just happy we have the team. It's cool to say, 'Hey, I'm on the surf team at Villanova Prep."

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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